Testing out Camino

For the last few days, I've been playing with Camino as my default web browser. For my new help system, it has some components that rely on Firefox (for editing knowledgebase articles), so I wanted to give Firefox a try. Unfortunately Firefox doesn't look like a Mac application. Camino is supposed to be a Mac-ified version of Firefox, so I decided to give it a try. While it's better than Firefox in terms of being a Mac application, it still has some weird behaviors. It appears to be faster than Safari and seems to be functioning well. I imported my bookmarks and since I'm using 1Passwd for storing passwords to websites, the transition was easy. One bug that is kind of annoying is there are 2 checkboxes for Passwords; "Allow saving in the Keychain" and "Auto fill passwords in web forms". Unfortunately they don't work properly. With 1Password, I fill in my passwords with it so I turned off Auto fill passwords in Safari and now Camino. In Safari, the HTTP Authentication passwords still got filled in, but web forms didn't get filled in. Camino, however, requires that "Auto fill passwords in web forms" be turned on to fill in web forms as well as HTTP Authentication passwords.

I should probably just download the source and fix it, but the last time I touched anything related to Mozilla, it made my head spin and I found some source I had written when I was at Qualcomm that was used without retaining the copyright message (the original source I wrote is still available).

The jury is still out on if I'll keep using Camino, but the speed and better support for editing in Cerberus and my blog (both use TinyMCE). We'll see.

New technical support system

This week, I installed (actually I had someone else install it as he had experience doing it and it only took him 30 minutes) a new technical support system for ReceiptWallet and DocumentWallet. I decided that I needed a more dynamic way to update my FAQ and better handle technical support inquiries as many of them are the same types of questions. For the last few weeks, one of my clients has been evaluating a new CRM system as it has outgrown its current system. I've been following along to see what would work for me and nothing that was being evaluated met my needs. So, I started looking at its current system, Cerberus, and found that it actually could work for me. They have a free version which I had installed and for now, it seems to meet my needs. If I need more, the $200 fee for small businesses is pretty reasonable in my opinion. So, check out my support site and see how the end user portion works. The backend that I use to respond to support tickets also seems to be working well. There is one bug in the user interface that I've been unable to fix (source is included), but that's minor.

I hope to grow into this help system and have enough sales to bring someone else in to answer support inquiries. I'll be ready for it, when (not if) the time comes!

Fringe benefits?

The other day there was an article in our local paper about how Google has setup a transportation system to shuttle some of its employees to and from work. In addition, they provide free chef cooked meals, doctor checkups, etc.. While this sounds like a great idea, the article clearly quoted a Google employee as saying that these perks allow google to get a few extra hours a day out of each employee. So instead of employees working 8 hour days, these "perks" make them work 10-12 hour days. Hmmm...seems to me that they should pay employees more, but these perks probably cost less than paying their employees more. Google contact me a few weeks ago about a job in Colorado. Leave San Diego? For chef prepared meals (I'm not sure if the non Silicon Valley offices get the same perks)? I think I'll stick where I am. 8 hour work days (OK a few more as I'm self employed) as all I can handle.

My first reseller!

I've signed up my first reseller for ReceiptWallet and DocumentWallet. DataViz is now selling the products on their website. Already (in its first day) this has driven at least a few people to my products that would never have otherwise seen them. I hope that this works out well and doesn't cannibalize my direct sales.